


everything that drowns me (makes me wanna fly)

by crocs



Category: Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: During Canon, Gen, Infinity War spoilers, Just How Was Rhodey Convinced To Go To Wakanda?, Male Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 12:37:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14544906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocs/pseuds/crocs
Summary: "Having fun?"Sam gulped down a swig of his mug. "Just haven't seen anything like this since we first went to Wakanda, man. Catching up." He looked at the mug suspiciously. "Did you make this for Natasha?"





	everything that drowns me (makes me wanna fly)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Marvel.

Looking at Rhodey, and then at the coffee machine, and then at the mug he was holding, and then back at Rhodey again, Natasha sighed.

"Rhodes," she began, "I haven't had coffee in six months. Neither has anyone else on the team. Please tell me that's not decaf."

"It's not decaf, I swear."

Natasha slumped gracefully, like a cat stretching to go to sleep. "Thank god."

"I didn't think you liked coffee."

"Natalie hated coffee. Natasha doesn't. Coffee, now." She made grabby gestures with her hands. The childish effect was somewhat ruined, thought Rhodey. It would have been funny if she didn't have knuckledusters on.

"But she does like to refer to herself in the third person," he gestured toward her with the mug.

The mug in question had Thor’s face plastered all over it. It was Clint's favorite, he remembered.

Flipping her hair as she looked towards him, Natasha smiled. He felt a primal sort of fear.

"Exactly," she said with a low voice, and twirled a dinner knife with her hand. Rhodey shut the cutlery draw slowly, not missing the curl to Natasha's face.

"I need to go and call Clint. Scott too, maybe. We didn’t have internet in —" She stopped, suddenly, and strode off.

Rhodey was left staring behind her. "Wait, where _were_ you? Romanoff — damn it."

Now what was he going to do with the coffee?

—

Rhodey stepped into the workshop and caught Sam's eye as he entered. He nodded his greeting, handed him the coffee, and looked at the holotable that Sam was periodically stabbing his finger at.

"Having fun?"

Sam gulped down a swig of his mug. "Just haven't seen anything like this since we first went to Wakanda, man. Catching up." He looked at the mug suspiciously. "Did you make this for Natasha?"

"Cap told me that the last time you went to Wakanda was two years ago, man. You okay?"

Sam laughed and shifted towards Rhodey, looking at the ceiling. "More than. I feel at home, you know?"

Rhodey's brow furrowed.

"I'm an aeronautical engineer first and a superhero second. Or a son first and a superhero third, if you ask my Ma."

"Tony didn’t mention that."

Sam looked away from the ceiling and slightly to the left of Rhodey, not meeting him in the eye. 

"Man, there's a lot of things that Stark doesn't talk about. You know he knew about the accords before anyone else and just didn't do anything about it, right?"

Rhodey scoffed. "After Ultron, Tony was a lot more careful about doing shit that could get him in trouble. Pepper and me — not _you_ , Me—" he batted off one of the bots — "we thought that it was because of Sokovia. We were right, sort of."

Sam turned back to the holotable and jabbed at one of the floating icons. A blue light filled the room, and Rhodey whistled.

"Holy shit, is that —"

Sam stared grimly at the flickering shape in the middle of the room. "A new upgrade for my wings. Dated last week. I think Stark wanted us to come back — to be a team again — even if he wouldn't admit it."

Rhodey dismissed the hologram with a practised wave of his hand, banishing the image to a flat-screen in front of them. He stepped forward through the workshop, not missing the way that Sam turned slightly towards him. He narrowed his eyes.

"Where'd you even get those things anyway?"

Sam puffed out his chest. "58th Rescue Squadron, pararescue unit."

"Air Force?" Rhodey looked at Sam.

"Man, if you say Chair Force, I swear — I do not give a rat's ass about our new bromance, I will —"

"Calm down, airman," said Rhodey, with a placating hand in mock-surrender. "Colonel James Rhodes, US Air Force. _Retired_ ," he added, after seeing Sam's eyes boggle.

"Oh, god," Sam rubbed his eyes with his hands, "I swear I knew who you were before we came in here. Total brain fart. I remember that Riley — my wingman — used to look up to you something bad."

Rhodey smiled, not unkindly. He didn’t press on the past tense. "Long day?"

Sam grimaced. "Long year. I've been up for — wait, what time is it?"

"I don't know. JONES?"

A pleasant male welsh accent drifted up through the floorboards. " _The time is 11:46, sir._ "

"…35 hours, give or take. Huh." Sam swivelled on his heel. "Some benefits to having Stark as a friend, yeah?"

Rhodey grinned. "Yeah. Officially, JONES is my 'healthcare assistant'. Unofficially, he's my co-pilot too." He gestured towards the hallway. "Wired throughout the house and the War Machine suit."

"Cool."

"Damn cool."

They stood in silence.

"...So, Wakanda, yeah?"

"Best place ever. Ever, Colonel." Sam looked Rhodey dead in the eye. "There's this marketplace in the middle of the capital filled with high tech stuff nobody here could've even dreamt of, not even Stark. I could walk around there, no one bothering me, and I could casually barter for upgrade prices in the street." 

He splayed his hands wildly as Rhodey leant back on a wall."The Princess — Shuri — has this lab that's — oh my god, it's better than _this_ by miles!"

"It's just Rhodey," Rhodey said, amused, "and damn, that sounds like paradise, Sam. Pity I can't go."

"I —" Sam did a fantastic impression of a fish. "— Why not?"

"One of the first things Wakanda did when they went public was to refuse Tony entry to the country," he shook his head, "and he'd kill me if I went without him."

"Damn, who the hell cares what your friend thinks? He's not here now, is he?" Sam pointed at Rhodey. "And neither's Ross. You should come with us when we go there, man."

"I could," Rhodey tilted his head, considering. "I really should, shouldn't I?"

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. You'll kick yourself, man."

"Tell Romanoff to save me a good seat in the Quinjet." Rhodey pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on and made for the hallway. "I'm gonna get my suit."

Sam chuckled quietly to himself as he watched Rhodey retreat down the corridor.

"Man," he murmured, "you are going to _shit_ yourself when you see what the Wakandans have done with vibranium prosthetics."

**Author's Note:**

> So I literally saw Infinity War yesterday and was immediately destroyed by what happened in it — but also walked out burdened with three god-tier ships (Sam/Rhodey, Steve/Thor and that glorious scene with Okoye/Natasha/Wanda) and glorious purpose. This was one of them.
> 
> (Also, JONES is totally inspired by Torchwood's Ianto Jones. Rhodey needs an AI, okay?)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
